August 26, 2006

hello!!! Africa is awesome, i am loving it and having a blast....we have been brought into niamey the capitol for the weekend for a tour and to use the internet, we were all so excited to use the internet hehe...bear with me and forgive the typos bc the keyboards are so different here its like learning how to type again. Sooooooooooooooooooo much to tell all of you!!! First off, we are having a lot of fun and learning lots. Its totally safe here too, i havent felt endangered at all; the Nigeriens are the nicest people. The Peace Corps staff here are so fun and nice; they make training a lot of fun and are so nice it hurts, haha:

Niger is a muslim country, and 5 times a day there is a call to prayer from the mosques here in town...The first one is at 5 am....I live pretty far from the closest mosque, so I dont hear it at 5, but some of my friends who live closer to the mosque hear it every morning, blasting on the loudspeaker...Hey at least I only have chickens to wake me up...actually some mornings its the goats, sometimes the cows, haha...The call to prayer is really pretty and melodic actually, beautiful. When i get up sometimes the boys in my concession are on their mats doing their prayers. Also bc they are muslim, smoking and drinking is very frowned upon here, you barely see it anywhere among the nigeriens. The africans here have the prettiest clothes, they make ours look boring, haha. Ive gotten a skirt made from a pretty pagne that I bought from the market, its bright yellow and teal. Im going to try to get a few more made, and also there are tons of good thriftstore finds to be found here, stuff that goodwill couldn't sell in america so they send to africa. I'll admit, i did get a good laugh the other day when I saw a muslim man wearing an "I love Jesus" hat bc im sure he had no idea what his hat said. My host mom, she sells these fried dough balls in the market, theyre actually good rolled in sugar, sometimes I sit down there with her on market days and pretend to help her sell.

We are positively celebrities here. Everywhere we go people stare...its definitely hard to get used to people staring at you no matter what your doing. All over the village its so funny, random kids that I swear ive never seen before in my life will come up to me " fofo yasmina!!!!!!!! fofo!!" I dont know how these kids know me. (yasemena is my african name...I like it!!

The flight here took forever!! but it was so cool when we flew over the sahara; just beautiful. We are in training in a village called hamdalaye, the training site it like 4h camp; its cool. All of us trainees live down in the village with our host families..I got lucky, my host family is so sweet and the kids are so beautiful. The oldest girl is Ishatou; she is amazing; this girl does; everything, she cleans, gets water from the well, shows me around hamdy (hamdallaye), takes care of her brothers and sisters, and cooks my dinner every night...and shes 10!! love her. My little brother is Mamansani, seriously the cutest kid ever...he needs to work for baby gap. Hes 3, and my namesake is the baby of the family; Yasemena, shes a cute one...Ive taken tons of pics, i cant wait for yall to see them. I have pics of mamansani in UGA gear; and of me carrying yasmena on my back african style; they are too cute.

We really are having a lot of fun...during the day we have tons of lang classes; Im learning Hausa, which means Ill be put somewhere in Hausaland; the provinces are Konni, maradi, or zinder, you should look them up on a map. We have started a few lessons on our health training; but we are mainly focusing on lang now bc that is so important...i get a lot of practice with my host fam and with the kids. people could greet here for days!! in nigerien culture, its rude to start any conversation without saying; how is the health? how is the tiredness? how is the hut? and your goats how are they? what about the family?? and so on!! but its kinda fun just to banter; and good language practice. Anyway, the other health volunteers and I have learned a few simple health lessons and how to say the, in hausa for when we get to our villages; such as medicine for diarrhea and conjunctivitus; and basic sanitation lessons. So we learn language and culture during the day; and after class is over, we usually play volleyball or soccer; ping pong. Peace Corps has set up a little bar at our training site, i guess for our sanity, haha. The Nigerien beer is good!! The best kind is called biere niger, and its most definitely better than natty haha. I love all of the other trainees here, they are some characters. We do have a lot of fun; and im glad i have some fun people to spend the next two years of my life with if I cant be with yall!! My friend mark has the best quote of the trip, one time we were all cutting up and he said "Somehow, I dont think were what JFK had in mind." hahhahah. Ive started a quote book of all the crazy stuff people say.

Each stage of trainees gets their own tshirts made, and the slogans are quite funny...Old ones say:

Everythings hotter in Niger.

Niger, where everybody knows your name: ANASARA!! (anasara = white person)

I can't wait to see what our says hehe.

I am seriously missing some american food!!! One can only have rice and sauce for so many days in a row before it gets old. Please send food!!! Sometimes during breqks we just talk about food, its so funny. I am planning my homecoming meal now!! The cooks up at the training site are good cooks though; it will just be a rude awakening when i am out in the bush and have to cook for myself though!! They do have these really good yogurt drinks, they are like gogurts, and called kossum here; and are about the closest thing to ice cream one can get in the village...a lot of times after dinner; we go get them at night.

So far Ive only been sick twice, which is much better than some of my friends. The worst thing people have gotten has been amoebas, which is absolutely no fun. We are on some serious malaria drugs; and they do give me some vivid dreams; but thats the only side effect ive felt. Sleeping under the stars and my mosquito net at night is so nice!! it gets too hot and stuffy in my hut, and outside there is breeze and about a billion stars. You can see for miles; and shooting stars are a dime a dozen here. Its so amazing. Sunrise and sunset are just beautiful too; the horizon goes on for forever and there are so many types of clouds and colors in the sky it just takes your breath away... I saw my first african rainbow yesterday!!! I learned how to say it in hausa but ive already forgotten, whoops!! haha.

Thanks so much if youve sent me mail or messages!!! i love you!! mail day is so exciting here...SO far my letters have taken about 2 or 3 weeks; but my friend mark got a letter from PA that was postmarked only 4 days earlier!! You can send mail on bush taxis here; and they,re called bush notes. Mark came up with moàst of the best quotes of the trip; "Call me BushMail." hahahahhahahah. love him.

what else, my birthday was lots of fun; the trainees all made me a card, the cooks cooked a cake; and everyone sang; and i even got a happy birthday beer! yay it was fun. There are camels everywhere!! they are the funniest things. I seriously want to get one when i get to my village!!! how much would you laugh if i got a camel. Im for sure getting a kitty. I cant wait to find out where ill be put in country. The PC volunteers that are already in their posts are a lot of fun; weve met a good many. A couple of weeks ago; we did this thing called demyst, where we spent the weekend out in coutry one on one with a volunteer. I was in Konni with a girl named Natalie, we had a lot of fun; and all of the volunteers from the Konni region threw us a big party at the end. They had bush pizza and burritos; and even bush hunch punch!! so fun. first african hangover, not fun haha. And we spent the night in the hostel and were able to call home, that was nice.

We had a fashion show last week!! all of our host moms dressed us up in african fashions, mine even put this crazy makeup on me; i took about a billion pics that night. I havent laughed so hard in a long time. The Nigerien staff dressed up in all of our american clothes; and they all got a good laugh out of that. After the fashion show; these people called the Wadabe people came in and did a show for us; they were amazing!!! look them up on the internet. They sang and dance and did this beauty contest where the men make the whites of their eyes and their teeth really visible to attract women and dance... Seriously; look them up!! I got pics and video.

Next week, all of us health volunteer are going to DOSSO TO SEE THE GIRAFFES!!!! I am superexcited; i cant wait. Oh yeah and this was funny, a couple of weeks ago, Peace corps threw us a party and there was flipcup, beer pong, AND circle of death. Friends, you would have been proud I represented the south well.

I miss all of yall so much, we just sit around telling stories about our families and friends and the crazy stuff we did in college. There are so many african kids running around here with your names; bc they all want american names bc we have african names; so chances are ive given your name to someone. I dont know when I may have internet again; hopefully i will come into niamey next weekend and get to use a cafe. Please send letters!! and news is much appreciated. I listen to my shortwave a good bit; and get Voice of America and BBC, and tons of random international stations; but really; the celebrity gossip is lacking here hahah. I love and miss all of you so much!!! and i think about yall every day.

Thanks for reading and caring,

Katie

A Call from Niger-08/14/2006

Katie has called the United States. "I don't need an alarm clock. The chickens and rooster (and other livestock) are close by."

Katie is aware of the recent events in London, but reports no actions by Peace Corp.

As part of her introduction, Katie is learning the language and has met the Nigerian Ambassador. In addition, she is immersed in the local culture and continues to capture lifetime experiences.

Katie's name is Yasemena.

Katie thoroughly enjoys her host family and appreciates their hospitality.

What is the going rate for a camel these days? Well, we don't know, but a colleague in Katie's group has purchased one. How often do you have the opportunity to purchase a camel?

Although packages have been mailed they have not arrived in Niger. Moreover, this applies to the group, not just Katie. As a side note: If packages are mailed to the current address and Katie moves to the village, packages will be forwarded.

All in all, Katie is doing well, sounded very upbeat and excited to be in Africa. She is expected to make another call to the US later this month.